


A Good Man

by Truth



Category: Dog Soldiers (movie)
Genre: Gen, Violence, Yuletide, canon character death, challenge:Yuletide 2006, recipient:kezya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-26
Updated: 2010-10-26
Packaged: 2017-10-12 21:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/129374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Truth/pseuds/Truth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cooper would just have to learn that 'doing the right thing' wasn't always a choice between black and white. Sometimes, in the shades of grey, doing the right thing for the wrong reason was worse than doing nothing at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kezya](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kezya/gifts).



> Unedited, as this was a stocking stuffer, and my apologies for that.

  


## A Good Man

  
Fandom: [Dog Soldiers (movie)](http://yuletidetreasure.org/get_fandom_quicksearch.cgi?Fandom=Dog%20Soldiers%20\(movie\))

  
Written for: kezya in the Yuletide 2006 Challenge

by [Truth](http://yuletidetreasure.org/cgi-bin/contact.cgi?filename=32/agood)  


Unedited, as this was a stocking stuffer, and my apologies for that.

There's pain and there's pain. The first is the tearing, mind-numbing agony of having your gut ripped open and knowing that if the shock doesn't kill you, blood loss or infection will. The second is the bone-weary exhaustion of acceptance as you look at what's left of your men, _your_ men and know that you can't save them - that you can't even save yourself.

Harry Wells had left the first behind in favor of the second and now, in the darkness of an old farm kitchen with the smell of a dinner left too long on the table and the sharp stink of wet fur and old blood, he was staring the second directly in the metaphorical face.

Two men left, the girl... he couldn't count Ryan - wouldn't count him. The man was the worst sort of bastard, one who'd spend his men without thought as long as it got him what he was after. There was soft piano music from the next room and he could see the girl, if he cared to look.

He left that to Cooper, who was watching everything now as alert as Wells should be himself. Alert enough to catch the wandering of his sergeant.

"Sarge?"

Wells waved him off, shaking his head. They had a breather, thank god for that, and he needed this time to _think_. There had to be a way out. There _would_ be a way out - for them if not for himself. Sgt. Harry Wells would not be leaving this blocky little farmhouse in its secluded little glen. He knew that as clearly as he knew that there was something rotten in all this, so rotten that the stench was actually interfering with his ability to work his way through it.

Whatever it was, Ryan was in it up to his slimy, untrustworthy neck.

"Coop?"

Cooper looked up, still alert. The man was one any man would be proud to have and Ryan had thrown him back. Probably not _subordinate_ enough. Wells snorted quietly, rising slowly to his feet. Give him a man who could think, any day. "Get the girl, we have things to see to."

It felt almost like a sham to say the words, as if Cooper hadn't been the one who'd gotten them all this far. As Cooper left the room, Wells turned his attention to Ryan, watching the man and wondering how the special ops man was putting his back up just by _sitting_ there.

Something to think about later. For the moment, he was two steps behind and he'd have to let Cooper keep control of things while he struggled to get back on his feet - super glue and all.

**

There was something ugly about Ryan in those last few moments before he changed. He was too confident, too much in control of himself when it was obvious that there was no control to be had.

Wells looked into the yellow eyes and saw the glowing fires of his own, personal hell.

As the first pain faded, the second was growing with a slow inevitability, pain enough to tear a man apart and suddenly Wells knew where Ryan had found that strange control as everything was suddenly bright and clear before him. He knew what had to be done and the strange, earlier certainty that he'd never leave this place was back and stronger than ever.

"They're good people!"

He was `good people', had always prided himself on being a good man, as much as you could be and still be a soldier.

"We have to kill them all." Cooper's voice held iron and Wells was in full agreement.

He was one of them now, could feel it crawling through his blood and coiling around his bones. Now his only obstacle would be Cooper himself. Cooper was a good man, a man with a future, and as stubborn as only a good man could be.

Harry Wells had to die here, and if he died fighting, well...that was all he'd ever asked for, wasn't it? He could live with that first pain, accept it even as he lay dying... but he hadn't died, had he? That second pain, the lives of his men, of people he'd cared for and been responsible for... that pain he would not accept.

Cooper would just have to learn that `doing the right thing' wasn't always a choice between black and white. Sometimes, in the shades of grey, doing the right thing for the wrong reason was worse than doing nothing at all. If Cooper couldn't accept that... well, Wells was perfectly capable of making that decision for him.

The pain was fading as that sense of rightness and certainty grew and Wells wondered how much longer he'd have the strength to remain himself... or if it was already the wolf doing his thinking for him - rationalizing and planning to stay alive.

Harry Wells had always been a good man... and he planned to die as one - a soldier to the end.

   
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